Education Minister Edouard Geffray has urged protesters not to block schools, warning that disruption could jeopardise the academic year, a message aimed at students who blockaded dozens of high schools on Tuesday. The warning carries particular weight for senior students, whose first trimester ends before the end of November and whose grades matter greatly for university applications through Parcoursup. Teachers share that concern, wondering how to handle insufficient or absent grades when classes are blocked and lessons are missed.
The minister’s position reflects a dilemma for any education minister facing a student movement. Conceding to blockades by offering major policy changes rewards disruption and encourages more of it. Refusing to engage, while warning about the academic year, risks appearing indifferent to the classroom conditions students are protesting about, including teacher shortages, poor buildings and the admissions system they call unfair. Geffray has tried to navigate that dilemma by announcing reforms, including changes to Parcoursup, while urging students to return to class.
What teachers face
Teachers face the practical consequences of blockades most directly. A blocked school means lessons are lost, coursework is delayed, and grades for the first trimester may be incomplete. That incompleteness can affect university applications, because Parcoursup uses grades and teacher assessments. Teachers must therefore decide, school by school, how to assess pupils who missed lessons through no fault of their own, and how to avoid penalising pupils for a dispute they did not create. Those decisions are made locally, under pressure, and without a national rule that fits every case.
The school blockade reporting on Tuesday notes that authorities counted 48 blocked high schools, while the student union USL put the figure at 500, a gap that shows how contested even the basic facts of the dispute have become. It also notes that students plan a new day of blockades on Thursday, alongside a nationwide strike, which means the minister’s warning will be tested again within days.
A question of leverage
Students argue that disruption is leverage, and that without it, their demands for a 10 billion investment, more teachers and Parcoursup repeal would be ignored. The minister argues that disruption harms the very pupils the movement claims to defend. Both arguments have force, which is why the dispute has lasted since mid September and why Thursday’s strike, bringing teachers and other workers into the action, will be watched as a test of whether the movement can sustain pressure without losing public sympathy. The academic year is the stake, for both sides.
